Mashada Blogs » June 24, 2009

Kenya Cricket: Cricket Without Boundaries to return to Kenya

2009-06-24T20:45:00-04:00

Great news from this blog's favourite charity. Cricket Without Boundaries is a charity that is "dedicated to helping, educating and developing local communities around the World through the spread and growth of cricket." In particular, they have made special efforts in Africa, and have already undertaken trips to Kenya, Rwand and Uganda in 2007 and 2008 (right).

October 2009 sees a return to Kenya where they last introduced the game to over 500 children in areas that would not otherwise be exposed to the game. 120 new coaches were also trained and awarded certificates to ensure that the work is continued in their abscence. For a full report of the 2008 trip see here. Kenya Cricket.com would like to wish all involved the very best and looks forward to hearing about the even more successful 2009 trip!

If you are able to support this fantastic initiative, you can follow the links via the facebook site to donate. All donations go straight to the charity and help to raise AIDS awareness through teaching disadvantaged children cricket.

photo taken from CWOB websiteBecome a fan of Kenya Cricket.com on facebook: [www.facebook.com]

MREMBO: Mashada mix

2009-06-24T17:28:43-04:00

I’m fighting my demons. I’m bored and as the saying goes, “an empty mind is the devil’s workshop”. I can’t sleep either, so I’ve been web-hopping and landed at Mashada. Two things This thread has really impressed me.. as in the fact it has not been derailed and the discussion. Given me stuff to think about. A lot of [...]

Black Looks: 3 gay men arrested and paraded on TV

2009-06-24T17:13:07-04:00

Three homosexuals were arrested today by the Edo State police command in Benin City, Nigeria.They were paraded like common criminals and displayed on television. The command Public Relations officer has said they would be charged to court as homosexuality is a criminal offence in Nigeria. No more information yet….

Kenyan Pundit: Quick Hits (Lazy edition)

2009-06-24T16:35:04-04:00

Lazy, because the links are largely lifted from stuff I put up on twitter [yep, twitter still sucking dry my blogging mojo - it's like color tv vs. black and white].

Anyway, on to the links:

- African Venture Capital Fellows: Program aimed at promoting venture capital in Africa by educating and training future venture capitalists and leaders of high-growth and early stage companies based in Africa. Initial target countries – South Africa and Nigeria.

- Stanford’s E-corner: free videos and podcasts of leading Silicon Valley thought leaders.

- What Google should do in Africa – support Open Spectrum

- Twitter for newbies.

You Missed This: Gangster's Paradise Citizen's Nightmare

2009-06-24T15:15:00-04:00

Kenyan criminals are using their resourcefulness to unleash an unprecedented wave of deadly car jackings, lucrative kidnappings and violent robberies at a time when many kenyans are unable to make any ends meet. For the most part all these incidences have involved the unfortunate loss of precious lives. It seems everyone is now a target and no one is spared including members of our own government.

The most recent incident involved a kidnap attempt on assistant nairobi metropolitan minister Elizabeth Ongoro's child from the prestigious Makini school. Insecurity is knocking at the executive door. Only last week youthful permanent youth secretary Murugu Kinuthia was shot and wounded in Hurligham in what is now an all too common scenario involving fatal car-jackings resulting in either near death experiences if not permanent loss of life. Thank God the job was not finished.

Gangster's paradise
Earlier this month Evans Akula MP was car-jacked. Being an MP he was robbed of the equivalent of two year's worth of taxed salary for the honest above average earning Kenyan tax payer. I am sure you're as concerned as i am it could be your MP next month.This insecurity problem is getting out of hand and fast. Gates are being opened quicker at night and dogs are upgraded from pet to security status.

As the Khwisero MP was chauffered around for three hours in a late night guided tour of the city he was chatted up by his captors who told him they were angry with parliament for not giving the country a new constitution and car-jacking was their escape route out of poverty. The gangster's have decided to make our nightmare their extended paradise oblivious of the fact a new constitution will not pass a law making car-jacking legal

It's not the first time this blog is speaking about security in our country. Chris has tirelessly worked to bring us up to speed with the security situation through his experience. The truth is no one kenyan life is more precious than the other and if only ordinary Kenyans had the luxury of knowing beforehand what crime was coming their way each day they would be forearmed . MPs whose lives are under threat possess firearms such that if indeed their life is in danger and they're not just crying wolf they can protect themselves.

Sadly the same luxury does not apply for the rest of ordinary kenyans although some kenyans in the diaspora have access to legally owning firearms. If only they would be so lucky to get a hint of what crime was coming their way at the start of each new day there'd be no need for a police force. The message is loud and clear -never before has the insecurity aspect of ordinary kenyan's daily hard-knock life rang so close to home for Kenyan MPs and government minister's. If executive action is going to be taken let it not be reserved only for the politicans and the elite but include ordinary kenyan lives which are just as inexpendable.Kumekucha

Mauri Yambo: Pictures of Young Barack Obama

2009-06-24T13:24:00-04:00

Click here for a see-for-yourself: a Picture Galleryhttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

Kikuyumoja's realm: BL-5C

2009-06-24T13:03:01-04:00

Batteries for cell phones are a commodity and thus often quite cheap. The interesting part is that fake batteries will often cost the same as original ones and some dealers will swear by the fake Chinese NokLa phone in their hands that they are of course only selling “Original Nokia” products.

Original. Yeah, right.

What you see here:

A) original battery that came shipped with my Nokia 6230i

B) fake “original” battery from eBay @ 6,39 EUR

C) most-likely “original” battery from eBay @ 4,99 EUR

Battery B really pissed us off as it was drained within a few hours (!). The hologram is just very simple yet it looks like an original battery (except for the hologram and the deeper golden contacts). There are no hints on Nokia’s website other than the hologram (they used to have a form to double-check that number on the holo but imho even those numbers were faked).

Battery B was bulk-ware, meaning that it came shipped in a plastic bag while battery C was in an original Nokia packaging with a proper invoice. A bit irritating that there are two different mAh readings – a sticker that says 850 mAh on the front and a printed 970 mAh on the back. On Nokia’s website it says 900 mAh for the BL-5C, but hey – Nokia’s website has never been that accurate on phone details. Nokia also published a product advisory on the BL-5C type some time ago – a successful battery type has been produced over 300 million times and is built by five different manufacturers.

There are many, many dealers on eBay that sell BL-5C batteries for Nokia phones and I’d say that most of them are just fake ones. On the other hand, candidate number C was the cheapest, came in an original packaging and seems to perform like candidate A. Simbaya!

eBay as an online marketplace of course isn’t the best platform to purchase such electronics, but it is the one with the most competitive, or let’s say: comparable prices. Any other online-shop or even physical store will be more expensive (due to shipping rates & other general expenses). And it ain’t about the costs alone – I’d be willing to cough up more on a battery (but not too much!) if the dealer can assure that it is indeed original. I know this is a huge issue with product piracy and so on but – other than with cars where a non-original spare part may just as well be performing as required – most fake batteries also don’t last as long. There may be exeptions to this general rule, but from my experience with this and other phones, most copies aren’t good enough, not even close. Probably also because they are commodities and their Chinese manufacturers just don’t give a damn…

the-undergraduate: Last day :(

2009-06-24T12:41:00-04:00

Il miss driving school :'(
Am in love,in love with the Faws :(
How id have loved to drive the sexiest and biggest of them all one last time for old times sake *sigh*
il miss my friends,students,instructors and staff :(
Il miss trying to dodge some of the older trucks,il miss 'mswahili's' lunchtime vibe :(.i learnt quite alot from him and he took me to the ghettos,showed me a world i never knew existed
Il miss getting teased esp when i remember there was a time the instructors said i was barned from giving or taking any numbers from my classmates lol!Just yesterday one of them complained that everytime 'aki jenga nyumba ya gorofa anabomolewa' by the other guys i hangout with lol!i guess thats what happens when you're in a class with few chics
Il miss the special treatment always being given first priority in picking the trucks i wanted
Il miss being welcomed with a smile and firm handshake on arrival
Il miss the fact that people actually took time to findout how you were doing and were always there to help you out whenever you needed to get something sorted
Il miss the crushes,il miss the stories
Il miss my morning and evening walks to the mats stage
Il miss the scandals,il miss the undercover operations and trade that takes place on a daily basis
Il miss it all,il miss them all
I wanna go back already :'(
They all made my summer one to remember

Cheers y'all,il be missing ya
Glory you rock

bankelele: Apple’s Big Man

2009-06-24T10:49:00-04:00

Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs is back to work and Mac users around the world and apples shareholders can exhale and look forward to more years of revolutionary products. But what does it mean when a CEO is so intricately tied to his brand and has no clear succession strategy?

His mysterious five month absence from work is rather similar to that of the President Omar Bongo who, however, did not return to rule Gabon.

Hundreds of family heads, company founders, business leaders, patricians, and presidents consider themselves immortal and, like Apple, rarely entertain discussions on health or succession.

Blind Item: There are three gentlemen in Kenya who fit the equal of Steve Jobs - leaders so closely inter-wined with their brand and with no defined succession plan: one is a center of power, one is a leading revenue generator, one is a fast banker; two have disclosed medical problems, two have had recent aircraft mishaps, and two have no defined successors. All three are integral to their brand and it is important that their partners and shareholders define real succession strategies.

Finally, now that the real Steve Jobs is back to work we can resume reading communiqués from the other Steve Jobs.

SportsKenya: Confederations Cup: Labour of Love for South Africa

2009-06-24T09:53:00-04:00

Vuvuzela...crime and the samba boys seem to be the main headlines from Africa's 1st Confederations Cup. There are many things that we can write about but from the pitch I have watched top notch games, better than some international competitive games. Maybe I'm biased here being African, but it seem the Confed Cup is finally becoming more than a formality for most teams.Logistics and infrastructural problems aside, South Africa has shown it can hold its own in hosting a major sports events. Though FIFA chief Sepp Blatter had to make available free tickets, given the prior 'non-significance' given to the event, I can't place too much credence to that argument. The security issue, I see some sensationalisation with that too but the SA authorities need take that into consideration. Pres. Zuma had better arm his people with enough 'umshini' by 2010. They can't repeat such incidences like what happened to Egypt and Brazil players however much hotel authorities may play down the issue.The European kings made it known their intention to win the Confed Cup (and they are my favs), qualifying with 3 clean sheets. They seem to building strength upon strength and the game against South Africa was my best example of their tactical choices. Considering they are even without their top midfielders in Senna and Iniesta, any team ought to shiver at the thought of meeting them.The Brazilians on the other hand survived an onslaught from the Egyptians and they have seemed shaky at the back but they have devastated opponents with their counter-attacks. (Image courtesy of Adidas)The Final for me should be Spain vs Brazil though Spain vs South Africa would be ideal for ticket sales and acceptability across the continent. But then again, this is football and anything can happen. Come Sunday and we shall be crowning new Confederations champions !Dempsey breaks Spanish defence a second time- Image courtesy of Getty Images
UPDATE:US beats Spain 2-0; well again against the formbook, Obama's boys did the unthinkable and reached the Final of this unpredictable tournament. I eat humble pie for not even considering them as favourites. Now my critics are piling attacks saying it's the grass that does the talking on any particular day. On a positive note, this creates a fan-base wider than the usual European audience. If winning the ConFed Cup is bound to make the game more appealing to the Americans then let it be. More incentive for Pres. Obama to come to Africa next year if the US qualifies for the World Cup...